Georgian opposition nominates Saakashvili as candidate for prime minister

Georgian opposition nominates Saakashvili as candidate for prime minister / REUTERS

Georgian opposition coalition 'Power in Unity' has nominated former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili as the candidate for prime minister in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

"The use of Saakashvili's resources is absolutely necessary for the state if the country wants to achieve domestic and foreign policy goals," one of the leaders of the United National Movement (UNM) party, Grigol Vashadze, announced at a briefing on September 7, according to Georgia Today.

Read alsoUkraine's FM Kuleba comments on Saakashvili's controversial statementsWhen asked how the former president is going to return to Georgia, Vashadze answered that he will talk about his plans himself.

Saakashvili in Georgia and Ukraine: background

• Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013. A number of criminal cases were opened against him. The former president was accused of abuse of power in dispersing a 2007 opposition rally, destroying the Imedi TV company, and seizing assets of Badri Patarkatsishvili, the company's founder.
• Saakashvili joined Ukraine's politics in the spring of 2015. The then-Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, appointed him head of the International Reform Council and granted him Ukrainian citizenship. In 2018, the politician was deported from Ukraine to Poland for crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border with an "invalid passport" (earlier reported as lost).
• In May 2019, Ukrainian President Zelensky reinstated Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship, after which the politician returned to Ukraine. On May 7, Zelensky by his decree appointed Saakashvili chairman of the Executive Reforms Committee, the advisory body created in 2014.
• In August 2020, Saakashvili made a statement amid media rumors about his return to his homeland country.